If you were Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and the current Parliamentary ethics commissioner, Bernard Shapiro, announced that he was planning on launching an investigation against one of your Conservative Members of Parliament for conflict-of-interest, what would you do?
If your response was, "Co-operate with the investigation to clear my name and the party's, which would fulfill my campaign promise of a cleaner government," you're wrong. The Harper way to do it is "rush to replace the ethics commissioner".
As I've said before, Parliament hasn't even started, but that whole cool, confident, righteous leader image that Harper managed to project during the election campaign has already fallen to pieces. The new prime minister's displays of resistance towards such a probe, even if there is any justification for the slightest hesitation, are becoming increasingly outrageous (even embarrassing) and are effectively tainting his leadership before he has even begun handling major national and international affairs (apart from appointing the Cabinet, of course).
All of this, of course, leads to bigger concerns. Ethics was a key issue and transparency was a major campaign promise. If Harper is willing to break from this so quickly and nonchalantly, it makes me wonder: what will happen to his promise to refrain from using the notwithstanding clause on the issue of same-sex marriage?
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